Me + the Boys

I was just thinking about this great night we had a few weeks ago and never shared.

Me and my boys:

From right to left: Bryan (Best brother ever), Scott (Besthusband ever) me, Phil (Best brother-in-law ever) and Phil's buddy (best new friend ever)!

When Phil and his friend came into town for a competition, we somehow managed to connect all our schedules and meet for a night at Cafe Rio!

And this was a while ago too, but a fun night with the Drapers, Dellenbachs and Baggetts.

~Family and friends~

It's always better when we're together :)

Sick Days

Can you remember what it feels like to be sooo hot you're burning up, but have 10 blankets on because goosebumps are covering your body and you're so cold you can't get warm? Well that's how I'm feeling now. I'm on day 2, and hoping there is no day 3.

I got so bored yesterday that when I woke up this morning, I convinced myself that I was on the up and up. So I got in the shower and put clothes on (way farther than i ever got yesterday) and went to work. I didn't even last 30 minutes. The nurses said I was irresponsible for coming and risking passing my sickness to the patients. By the time I got home my pants had sweat spots all through them and the back, front and armpits of my shirt were basically drenched.

Luckily the days go by pretty fast. I sleep through the night with the help of meds, and then take 4-6 hour naps in the morning and afternoons. And I eat a BUNCH of Popsicle in between. Like 10-12 probably. They cool me down and make my throat feel better. Scott has been so nice to come home for lunch. I may not have anything to blog about for a while, since I haven't left my house for a while... so keep your blogging up everyone- I like to read them between naps :)

Randoms.

Last night after dinner, I thought to myself, “If I could do anything I wanted tonight, what would I do?” And my answer was “Get a goooood book, a bowl of watermelon frozen yogurt, and enjoy them both in a bubble bath.” And so I did. And I have zero regrets.

I think I have arrived. I’ve always wondered if I would ever be the sort to go to the grocery store and spend most of my time in the produce section. Well it happened. I realized at the check out that Scott and I are probably eating enough greens! Here’s what was in my cart: Lettuce, cilantro, limes, celery, green onion, green bell pepper, spinach, avocado, mushrooms, bananas, milk, eggs and tortillas :)

Much of my family is together this weekend, and I feel like I am missing out. Darn it.

The final Harry Potter movie did not disappoint! As others have said, I agree that a piece of my childhood has now ended with the conclusion of these movies. I am happy that I still remember my own images of each character from before the movies were released. I've had many fun times dressing up as various characters and attending both book and movie midnight releases!

I think I need a hair cut. It's just at that weird phase, you know?

That's all for today :)

Camping with the Ricks

I love these fun summer nights. The days feel so much longer when you can actually go on an adventure after work and have enough light to make it worth it.

Chris and Rachel took us to a new place up Provo Canyon. Who knew this is in our backyard?

We had fun chatting about their honeymoon-ish trip to SE asia and hearing all the good stories!

We ate tin foil dinners and Scott whipped up the best thing of the night: Peach Cobbler.

Can you say delicious?

Smores don't hold a candle to this stuff!

So much fun with old friends and new friends too! You sure know how to pick em Chris and Rachel, those other couples were so fun!

I only wish we could have slept under the stars with the rest of them,

but alas, we had our bike race the next morning.

Here's to summer nights and summer lovin'!

Tour De Donut 2011

Well, we did it! Saturday morning found us biking 21 miles and eating lots of donuts!

Thanks to friends for lending us bikes and helmets, we got to do one practice ride on Thursday night, and then race on Saturday! We definitely felt the burn, but I am happy to say that I never got tooo tired or felt like I was going to die. I guess my mornings with Jillian Michaels have paid off :) My Hairspray soundtrack got me through the rough patches!

So the tour de donut is three 7 mile loops. Between each loop you eat as many donuts as you can. Each donut takes a minute off your time. Scott was a champ, fast racer and fast donut eater- he ate a total of 7!!! I ate 2 total, one between each lap. I wanted to participate, but definitely wanted the calories I burnt not to go to waste! Here are some more 1on1 ers :)

Rachel and Christa:

Sterling and Nate:

And now a bunch of the crew:

Who doesn't love a good morning bike ride?

And my reward for finishing my first bike race: HALF BAKED :)

Hummas

This stuff is gooooood.

I love it when Scott approves buying the "extras" at Costco. (Now if I can just get him to go for artichokes!!!) Well anyway, Sunday after church I was so excited! I just could NOT wait to eat so I toasted some pita bread into pita chips with a little olive oil and garlic. I thought I'd done pretty well for myself :)

Until I saw Scott's meal!!! That boy just has a way with food. He seriously manages to concoct gourmet meals with whatever we have in the house! He shared 2 bites of this masterpiece with me because he felt bad for me. That 2 bites was just enough to make me SUPER jealous!

tomato, lettuce, feta cheese, grilled chicken, red onion... who knows what else!

I hope I've learned my lesson and let Scott cook for me in the future, even if it will take a bit longer.

And, we took the plunge and got this bad boy that same day at Costco. After some math in the isle, this turned out to be the best deal for us. It is much better than the Western Family olive oil we've been using until now.

We are trying to get in touch with our Mediterranean roots!

Detox?

Do you have a good detox you have done or heard about? I've never done one, but I think I'm ready. I know I should be drinking more water, so why not add some herbs to it and see if it works? Ideas?

DIY camera bag

I really love my new camera purse! For a total of $25 (instead of $90 + shipping for the similar Jo Totes bag) I came up with a camera bag I love! Shopping for the purse was the hardest part. I wanted something with a base to it, a flat part on the bottom. It needed a zipper closure on top. Not too big, not too small! And, I am glad I ended up with a classic black exterior! Oh, and it had to have handles that were the perfect length. It's the worst when you can't get it over your shoulder comfortably.

Because it's black on the outside, I wanted to make it a party on the inside! So I got 1/2 yard of this fun upholstery fabric on sale for $5/yard at Joanns. Love it!

I really didn't follow any method in making this, I just took it one step at a time and it was done in about 3 hours. As with any project, it would go much faster if I made another, now that I know what I'm doing. I used a 1 inch foam for the base, and 1/2 inch foam for the sides and dividers. Measure, cut and fit the foam before sewing the fabric case.

Once you have your foam pieces cut and you've put in your camera body and lenses to make sure it all fits, then cut your fabric!

I sewed the two long sides right sides together first and then put in the foam- the case was about an inch bigger than the foam at this point. We have to leave fabric to connect the foam pieces!

Then I pinned the fabric right next to the foam. Next step, sew it up! I probably could have been more exact with this, but it turned out great, so no complaints :)

Once the sides were done, I just folded in the extra fabric at the ends and top-stitched them closed. Sewing is much less time consuming when you're not flipping things inside out and ironing and measuring all the time. (I do all those things normally, just not with this project!)

Then I tried velcro-ing (sp?) the 1/2 in sides to the 1 in base, but the velcro wouldn't stay attached to the fabric without velcro adhesive... I just had a lot of trouble with it. So I ended up taking that off and just did a basting stitch to connect the pieces together. It went very quickly, looks nice, and I think it will hold much better than velcro in the long run.

So this is the inside once the sides and dividers were attached.

And everything fits inside quite nicely :) There is a lot of space on the right side, I am considering adding a vertical divider, or I will just put miscellaneous things in that section.

I've read on photography forums that this is the best position to store your camera body- lens up! Any thoughts?

And there's the beauty:

Very excited not to lug my huge camera bag around when I'm downtown or when doing a mini session. (not a great pic of me, but it kind of shows the size of the bag.)

EXCITING!!!

We actually did it. We actually bought our tickets :)

See if you can guess where we're headed in September:

1. It requires 4 planes to get there from SLC.

2. This place encourages rock climbing, kayaking, snorkeling, mountain biking, and white water rafting!

3. We were inspired to go here by National Geographic's Adventure magazine "Best Trip" highlight.

4. James Bond spent a lot of time in this region.

5. This destination is famous for their truffles. Not the chocolate kind. The mushroom kind.

6. (The giveaway clue:) This country's nick name is "The Land of the Thousand Islands."

...

...

...

yep that's right...

we're going to:

CROATIA

We'll have a few days in Italy and Hungary on the beginning and end of the trip, and side trips to Bosnia (random, we know) and Montenegro. If you or anyone you know has been to this region, let me know! Planning is in full force!

We'll be off the grid September 1-17. Loooove that!

If you guessed it in those clues, leave a comment and tell me which number gave it away for you!

Glenwood Springs, CO x 3

I guess our Glenwood Springs trip is sort of tradition :)

I'm kind of confused because we usually don't like going back to the same place when there is always more world to discover. But, those hot springs in Glenwood just keep calling us back. We found some new things to do this trip, but I think we both secretly love going there where we know what to expect and know we will love it! Back to the Silver Spruce Motel! They serve our favorite biscuits and gravy in the morning. They also have the best Belgian waffles!

We know our bed at home is really bad when the motel bed feels like a dream and we don't wake up with a back ache!

In the morning, we head to the Spa of the Rockies at about 7:30 am to stake out our chairs and get set up for the day. We bought a cooler for this trip, so legit, we know. We had cold water and non-melted gushers all day long!

And we finally made it to the hot springs at night. Floating on our backs and watching the stars was a dream. I couldn't recommend it more highly!

We took a walk through the park, to break up the day at the hot springs

And checked out the whitewater park where people go to practice their fancy tricks. That guy on the paddle board took a beer out with him, drank it, and then crushed the can and put it in his pocket. He thought he was hott stuff!

We almost ate at Juicy Lucy Steakhouse, but after 40 minutes of waiting to be seated, some people inside came out saying that it had been an hour since they ordered their food, and they still hadn't eaten! So, we decided to save some time and money and have pizza and salad instead!

And the highlight for me was:

Biking!

The trails were just so gorgeous and it felt so good to get out and get moving! I wish I had the patience to upload a video that would show you how fast I pedaled up the hills. Scott was shocked! Let's be honest, I surprised myself too, but I just loved feelin the burn!

Glenwood Springs has treated us well for the third consecutive year. Can't wait until we go back again!

Aspen, Colorado

We found our way to Aspen, Colorado over the 4th of July weekend!

I think our interest for Aspen first peaked from the Top Chef Food and Wine Classic which was held in Aspen just 2 weeks ago! What a beautiful, beautiful place!

Our morning couldn't have started out better than with a walk through the Saturday market! Their kettle corn was unbeatable :) Being the popcorn fanatic that I am, that kettle corn was a total highlight for me!

After wandering through town for a bit, we decided to splurge and take the 20 minute gondola ride to the top of Aspen mountain. Gooooood decision.

There was a brass quintet doing a concert up top, which was a perfect place for us to eat our chicken salad croissant sandwiches, and fruit roll ups!

We took the ridge trail hike around the bend for some beautiful views. Luckily it was more of a walk than a hike because we were at such high altitude! Scott felt a bit sick all day because of it :( We loved sitting in the Adirondack (sp?) chairs and having a hoola hoop contest! We made it even more challenging by doing it on that log! It was a nice hot day, and just super nice to be out on the mountain.

We learned about the Ashcroft Ghost town on the Amateur Traveler podcast we subscribe to. It was kind of far out of the way, and we probably wouldn't recommend it... but hey, we got some great ghost pictures of Scott:

And another winner too:

(I have a feeling this one will come in handy in the future...)

And, we learn why the town is called Aspen:

And to end the day, we visited the supposed "most photographed site in north America." I don't know if that is true or not, but regardless, it was a very beautiful and peaceful place.

Introducing: Maroon Bells!

Scott took a little nap, and I polished off a few Sudoku puzzles!

We feel very blessed to be able to take our weekend adventures and enjoy the beauty of this earth.

What a great day to be alive!